I Walk Alone
by Azecreth
Summary: Reese's life has been one of pain, loss, and deceit. Yet he continues on despite what has happened to him. Songfic. In honor of the new Season.


**A/N: This one just jumped into my head one day, and I need to get it out. You know how it is. This is my first songfic.**

**Person of Interest is owned by CBS, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams is owned by Green Day. So, no rights for me.**

* * *

_I walk a lonely road  
The only one that I have ever known  
Don't know where it goes  
But it's home to me and I walk alone  
_

A man sat in a warehouse, a bottle clasped in his hand as if it was the only thing that mattered to him. His clothes were rags, covered in dirt and grime. His face showed the lack of care it had been given covered in facial hair and the dirt that covered his clothes. He was a broken man. He was John Reese, as he preferred to call himself, one name among many he possessed. And he drank deeply as others like him, no homes, no future, walked past and tried to eke out what living they could. Him? He just didn't try.

_I walk this empty street  
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams  
When the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and I walk alone_

_I walk alone_  
_I walk alone_  
_I walk alone_  
_I walk a..._

In his previous life he had been the good soldier, fighting the hard fight to keep his country safe. He had fought in Desert Storm, had been a skilled member of US Special Forces, and had joined the CIA after 9/11 to help keep his country safe. It was then that he began to turn though. He was stationed in the USA, where he worked with other CIA operatives to stop US government members from betraying the country. All in defiance of government regulations. It was then he began to differ with the methods used by the CIA in protecting the country.

And while he did, his regular life slipped away, his connections to people grew weak and eventually broke, as he devoted himself to protecting the citizens of America. Until that devotion was shattered in an instant, in a company town in China.

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me  
'til then I walk alone  
_

He once had a love, a life. But he let it slip away in his duty to his country. A country that then betrayed him, tried to have his partner murder him in a town in China while he did the same to her. But it failed. And while he was on the run, the woman he loved was murdered, and her death was covered up as a car accident. That was what turned him to drinking, and the alcohol. Without her, and on the run, he had nothing to live for, no purpose, no reason to go on. He had always thought she would be there when he was done, but she wasn't. He started sliding down a hill, a hill that could only end in one place. The only difference there would be would be how he chose to go out.

_Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, aaah-ah,  
Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah_

_I'm walking down the line_  
_That divides me somewhere in my mind_  
_On the border line_  
_Of the edge and where I walk alone_

And then he met the man who changed everything for him. Harold Finch, as mysterious as they came. A recluse genius believed dead by the world, like he was. The man came to him with a proposition, to help those about to be the victims of violent crime. He would be the brains, and Reese would be the muscle. To do the things that Finch couldn't. He offered Reese a purpose, to help people like he had before, only this time he could do what was right, not what orders told him to do.

Reese didn't believe him at first, yet Finch made it hard to not believe him, having some men kidnap him and chain his arm to a bedpost so he could hear a murder go on in the room next door and force him to intervene. As it turned out, the murder was a recording, but it still go his point across. Sure, Finch may have played on his emotions, but he got what he wanted regardless. From that day, Reese worked with him, hesitantly at first, but growing in trust as time passed until they were working as a team. Together.

_Read between the lines  
What's fucked up when everything's alright  
Check my vital signs  
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone_

_I walk alone_  
_I walk alone_  
_I walk alone_  
_I walk a..._

Now, he lives again, where once he was dying. He has made new allies, maybe even friends if he will allow himself that. Finch, Carter, Fusco, Zoe. They've all helped him, willingly or unwillingly, and he has returned the favor when necessary. He has lied to them, but he did it because he believed it was necessary and to keep from forming some sort of meaningful attachment to them all. He can't stand to lose anyone else close to him, so he distances himself. And if they discover that he is lying, well, he'll deal with that when the time comes.

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me_  
_My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating_  
_Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me_  
_'til then I walk alone_

_Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, aaah-ah_  
_Ah-ah, ah-ah_

_I walk alone_  
_I walk a..._

They haven't always been successful. They've made their fair share of mistakes, unavoidable when the Machine only tells them that the Number is involved, leaving them to their own devices to figure out how. Sometimes they've ended up helping those who want to commit the crime in question, but they've always realized it and tried to fix their mistakes. And in the end, the good they do outweighs the bad they sometimes cause.

And they've helped people, a lot of people. But the Numbers keep coming, every day. It never ends. Not that Reese minds. He's been given a chance for a new life, to atone for his mistakes and the lives he's taken, and he's going to take this chance. He faces death, a death that seems ever possible. But he knew that it was true from the beginning when Finch told him that that was how it would end, and he's fine with that.

_I walk this empty street  
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams  
When the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and I walk a...  
_

Now Finch was gone. Captured by the one they were trying to protect. Who was she working for? CIA, Elias, the remains of HR? They had so many enemies that it could be any of these, or she could be working for a group they hadn't encountered yet but had crossed through their activities. And Reese wasn't the technical wizard that Finch was. Sure, he was very good at surveillance and beating things up, but Finch was the hacker deluxe, with connections all over the place and as many aliases as Reese had guns. And finch was the only one who knew how the Machine worked.

Reese couldn't do this by himself. There was only one thing he could turn to. As he walked the streets of New York, he stopped to stare at a security camera, imagining what the Machine must be seeing. And as it silently watched, he spoke to it. A plea for help, to rescue Finch, the man who had given him a new lease on life, a man who was the only one besides him on their lonely path, dead yet not, seeking redemption for their past sins.

"He's in danger now, because he was working for you. So you're gonna help me get him back."

And as he stared at the flashing red light, a pay phone rang near him. He turned around, walked over to the phone, and picked it up. As he put the receiver to his ear and heard the voice that came from it, he knew, then, that he had a chance after all.

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me  
'til then I walk alone... _


End file.
